Be Excellent To Each Other

Hullo all. Just bought my first rhythm game, Elite Beat Agents, and am terrible at it. I'm on the second lowest difficulty and for some reason I just can't do it. ("What, you mean aside from the reason that you're monumentally slow," - ed.) Any advice? Any fellow sob stories?

I so want to nail this game. I want to aid the people shouting "HELP!" out there in stupid capitals.

Maybe I should try being less incredibly tired. Yes, that must be it. *Cough*

Yes, get Ouendan instead, where the songs are better, and the stuff is mroe in time with the songs.

No, seriously: when you fail a song, keep playing it. Don't keep stopping to move to a different song, because you'll lose the muscle memory you're building up as you go along. It actually does get easier on later levels, because the beats are more in time with the song. On the lowest level it's counter intuitive.

Are you finding it worse with regular beat markers, sliders, or spinny dials?

Pretty much what Mr Russ said. The original Ouendan is a fantastic, fantastic game.

Also, are you using headphones? I found it so much easier with a decent set of headphones. The DS speakers are really quite weak. Also, familiarising yourself with the songs (if you don't know them very well) so you know what is coming next helps if you are struggling. I have the Ouendan 1 & 2 and EBA soundtracks somewhere on my computer

Start from the lowest difficulty setting and work your way up.

Be prepared for your DS screen to take a real bashing.

what russ said, and use headphones, that helps..and don't play it on the train,that doesn't

I managed to get up to halfway through the 'Bruisin'' difficulty level before it got too hard for me. You'll find that the DS speakers are far too rubbish (especially if you have a Lite). Headphones are a must, frankly.

I find with these sorts of games that I enjoy them and then hit a brick wall at some point with the difficulty. I think it's possible to just be inherently crap at them, more so than other games perhaps.

Everyone does (except the insaniacs who can play 'Through the Fire and Flames' on Expert), it just depends on your skill level as to where the brick wall ends up.

Righto, got my headphones. There's a few beats that I can't seem to hit no matter what time I strike the marker.

I'm finding the beat markers the hardest. Again, there's just some that I can't seem to get no matter what. I'm good on spinny thing though and okay on draggy thing. I am loving the ambience and the silliness and the Elite Beat's themselves - they're awesomely cool. C'mon muscle memory!

Yeah I think what I'm saying is that most games you can practice and get much better and you aren't going to rip through R-Type on your very first go. I have Donkey Konga and I was sort of ok on it but a mate came round who is a fine musician but is not into games at all, he pretty much nailed every song first go.

Yep, you're pretty much right. Once you've got your head around how the game mechanic works, you're rarely going to get better with practice - you can either do it or you can't.

As far as I could tell there was only one good song in Ouendan. That's the office level.

This one

Oh! You edited it to include the video while I was off finding it to also paste in!!

I bought the Best of Morning Musume based on that pretty, pretty video.
If you like that, check out the song "Say Yeah! Motto Miracle Night"

Just been playing it again this break time. Tried the easiest setting and it's a whole lot more managable, even if the beats don't always match. Still, got a couple that I just cannot hit no matter what I do - usually the middle or third of a group of three or four, it BLAP's it before the line intersects the outer circle. Grrr.

Just saved a weather-forecasting mum's weekend day trip with her son though, that's worth something.

leaning the music helps though, but indeed, it stops somewhere

There's some lovely levels in it.

If you find you are failing on the same few markers each time, try hitting the marker at a time which you know is too early. I found a couple of times you are hearing the beat slightly wrong in your head, and so expect the marker to hit on a bit that's actually a split second earlier or later.

This feels weird to deliberately do something wrong until you can reset your ears to hear where the beat is actually landing.